Based on our staff development experience, the team decided that the best way to create sustainability and move learning forward would be for us to create projects within our areas of teaching and then present these projects to Nichol’s teachers during a staff development day.The teachers could see the working projects and then meet with the project creator of their choice to learn more about a Web 2.0 tool that struck them as a possible fit for their curriculum. The projects that we have worked upon, or are working upon are: Science grade 6 – Julie Alford’s class, Carol Sue Stapleton, Joe and his staff and an intern for UB helped Julie’s class create planet projects using a Web2.0 tool.Carol Sue has since learned about another tool that would be even easier and this project will be duplicated using this tool next year. Asian Studies multimedia research paper – for 4 students in Dr. Rockwell’s senior class whose topics for their research paper were very visual in nature, created their papers in VoiceThread.This application allows them to present visuals and narrate the visuals, even being able to draw on the visuals for emphasis. Grade 6 English Podcasts -Carol Sue will be working with 6th grade English teachers next year to create podcasts of students’ orginial poetry.They will then participate in an online poetry slam with a 6th grade from Brighton, NY. Pre-Calculus:Jason DeGroat has created a wiki that will be used by his class to facilitate in their working on a number of collaborative projects.One such project will be based on mortality data.The data comes from the CDC database.The students will be talking with a working research expert, Stacey McCulle, a Nichols grad, who is involved in research at the University of Maryland Medical School.She will talk with students about the data, and support the biology teachers and curriculum in helping the students analyze the data as numbers and as representations of biological research.After this project has had a year to develop, Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach will help us take the collaboration with students, scientists and data international. 8th grade Science: Greg Plumb is also working with Stacey McCulle.He will use a modified project to Jason’s where the students will collaborate and interact online with Stacey but the project will be a series of challenges.The students will be challenged to collaborate on finding answers to questions having to do with hemoglobin in the body. Using hemoglobin as a protein that can be traced throughout the body that he will touch on many of his lessons, culminating with the genetics of the diseases associated with the protein such as sickle cell anemia, porphyria and thalassemias. Students have liked to work on forensic problems and the porphyrias could allow them to do a historical forensic lesson into King George III (and his distant realitive Marie Stuart Queen of Scotts). Students will also trace hemoglobin from DNA to protein to cellular and organ function systems (respiratory, circulatory, excretory). Fun topics they will touch on are whether breathing 100% oxygen is helpful to athletes, blood doping, high altitude training, why your cheeks turn red in the cold, why the whites of the eyes turn yellow when jaundiced, why urine is yellow and stool is brown.
Based on our staff development experience, the team decided that the best way to create sustainability and move learning forward would be for us to create projects within our areas of teaching and then present these projects to Nichol’s teachers during a staff development day. The teachers could see the working projects and then meet with the project creator of their choice to learn more about a Web 2.0 tool that struck them as a possible fit for their curriculum.
The projects that we have worked upon, or are working upon are:
Science grade 6 – Julie Alford’s class, Carol Sue Stapleton, Joe and his staff and an intern for UB helped Julie’s class create planet projects using a Web2.0 tool. Carol Sue has since learned about another tool that would be even easier and this project will be duplicated using this tool next year.
Asian Studies multimedia research paper – for 4 students in Dr. Rockwell’s senior class whose topics for their research paper were very visual in nature, created their papers in VoiceThread. This application allows them to present visuals and narrate the visuals, even being able to draw on the visuals for emphasis.
Grade 6 English Podcasts - Carol Sue will be working with 6th grade English teachers next year to create podcasts of students’ orginial poetry. They will then participate in an online poetry slam with a 6th grade from Brighton, NY.
Pre-Calculus: Jason DeGroat has created a wiki that will be used by his class to facilitate in their working on a number of collaborative projects. One such project will be based on mortality data. The data comes from the CDC database. The students will be talking with a working research expert, Stacey McCulle, a Nichols grad, who is involved in research at the University of Maryland Medical School. She will talk with students about the data, and support the biology teachers and curriculum in helping the students analyze the data as numbers and as representations of biological research. After this project has had a year to develop, Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach will help us take the collaboration with students, scientists and data international.
8th grade Science: Greg Plumb is also working with Stacey McCulle. He will use a modified project to Jason’s where the students will collaborate and interact online with Stacey but the project will be a series of challenges. The students will be challenged to collaborate on finding answers to questions having to do with hemoglobin in the body.
Using hemoglobin as a protein that can be traced throughout the body that he will touch on many of his lessons, culminating with the genetics of the diseases associated with the protein such as sickle cell anemia, porphyria and thalassemias. Students have liked to work on forensic problems and the porphyrias could allow them to do a historical forensic lesson into King George III (and his distant realitive Marie Stuart Queen of Scotts). Students will also trace hemoglobin from DNA to protein to cellular and organ function systems (respiratory, circulatory, excretory). Fun topics they will touch on are whether breathing 100% oxygen is helpful to athletes, blood doping, high altitude training, why your cheeks turn red in the cold, why the whites of the eyes turn yellow when jaundiced, why urine is yellow and stool is brown.